No more Avios points from Shell as Shell Drivers Club is axed

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• Michael says:

  3 Mar3 March 11:07

  Any reason all these partnerships are being culled? Seems a bit odd everything is falling apart on this front.

  • Shoestring says:

    3 Mar3 March 11:23

    Must just be that the PFS chains don’t think it’s money well spent, so is a cost that can be taken out of the business.

    Only my personal take on it but, paying for my own fuel, a few Virgin, Avios, Clubcard (ie Esso not Tesco PFS) or Nectar points would never make me change my buying intention to fill up at Esso, BP, Shell or Texaco instead of cheaper alternatives. When the difference per litre is often 5-8p!

    • Julian says:

      3 Mar3 March 11:53

      Shoestring,

      I don’t believe that base level 95 octane fuel at BP, Shell, Esso or Texaco (excepting Shell Fuelsave 95 where available) is significantly better in any way than Tesco or Sainsbury 95 fuel (check their own leaflets, pump displays and websites and you will see they make no special claims for their 95 octane products) although I do have some question marks about the quality of Morrisons and especially Asda 95 fuel. One of Asda’s tanker drivers (actually employed by DHL Logistics) even confirmed to me that Asda 95 is a sub standard spot market fuel specification in some manner or other and that’s why its now so much cheaper.

      Regarding premium fuels I can’t see how the fuel companies other than Shell and Tesco get away with selling only a 97 octane premium fuel when Shell and Tesco sell a 99 octane premium fuel. I also find significantly better mpg results with Shell Fuelsave 95 unleaded but due to all the extra additives needed by recently upspecced (twice) Vpower fuel Shell have sadly withdrawn Fuelsave 95 from most of their garage forecourts within 40 miles of Central London. The nearest place to London I can get Fuelsave 95 instead of Regular Unleaded at Shell is in Guildford. This seems to be because they now need all the additives for the Vpower fuel (which they sell a lot of in the London area due to higher income levels) and can no longer afford to hold any of it back to put in the upspecced 95 octane Fuelsave fuel. In the rest of Europe Fuelsave 95 is still available everywhere as normal.

      • Will says:

        3 Mar3 March 12:46

        If it’s labelled 95 octane in the UK, then it confirms to the relevant BS standards.

        The “secret additive” Fairytale is just that.

        99 octane fuels (v power or whatever they call it now and Tesco momentum) also conform to the relevant BS standards.

        The 99 octane just refers to the fuels resistance to self detonation under pressure, the higher the number the more resistant which allows a car to be tuned for greater output all other things equal.

        Higher octane can often mean lower calorific content (LPG and ethanol being such examples)

      • Mark2 says:

        3 Mar3 March 12:48

        I suggest that ‘fuel companies other than Shell and Tesco get away with selling only a 97 octane premium fuel’ by clearly marking it as such.

    • Mike says:

      3 Mar3 March 12:45

      Harry – forgot to thank you for highlighting the BBQ You tube channel this week – I signed up – I am hooked. You are a such a social influencer………….

  • Rob says:

    3 Mar3 March 15:50

    Very thin margins on petrol and the supermarkets continue to crush the big brands.

• BJ says:

  3 Mar3 March 12:58

  OT: Somebody reported problem with Lloyds avios card fraud yesterday. Today, I had attempted fraud on a cancelled SPG card that was attached to my former SPG account so readers may want to check any cards that were attached to SPG.

  • Russ says:

    3 Mar3 March 14:35

    Same here on a canx Gold amex at a shooting range in the US. Oh I do so hope the person who paid for the stolen data remembered to pay with their credit card so they’re covered by Sect 75… 😉

    • BJ says:

      3 Mar3 March 15:03

      Perhaps they shot themself in the foot!

      • Russ says:

        3 Mar3 March 15:22

        One can only hope…….

    • Anna says:

      3 Mar3 March 18:39

      I get a message every few weeks that Amex can’t take a payment on a cancelled card. We never hear from any companies we’ve previously paid needing updates card details so wonder if it’s a fraudster trying our details. If so, it’s an unexpected bonus of churning!

• Matt says:

  3 Mar3 March 13:07

  O/T am I correct that Creation (IHG) aren’t charging for cashwithdrals via curve? If I was charged how would I know?

  • Genghis says:

    3 Mar3 March 13:47

    Correct.

    IME Creation charge the cash advance fee straight way but I know others where they’ve been charged after statement generation.

    • Matt says:

      3 Mar3 March 14:58

      Thanks genghis

  • Grant says:

    3 Mar3 March 14:58

    No charges thus far for me. Same for Revolut top-ups.

• Doug says:

  3 Mar3 March 13:23

  OT, Is it reasonable to get an bus replacement for my flight from santander to Madrid? I wonder if anyone has persuited them for more. I’m leaving it as I haven’t taken the flights yet.

  • Lady London says:

    4 Mar4 March 00:05

    @Doug Can you explain? how has this come about?

    • Doug says:

      4 Mar4 March 00:40

      Many have booked santander to Madrid flights recently for iberia promo. Those might be receiving emails for cancellations as these flights must be empty. They are replacing the flights with buses.

      • Lady London says:

        5 Mar5 March 18:26

        Ouch.
        It’s a long ride from Santander to Madrid and I am sure the whole day will be organised inconveniently. Are you only due a refund though?

        Shoestring are you there? Is this an EU261? Can Doug just get his money back (I’m sure of that) or can he also get Eu261 duty of care etc. if he chooses to go on a different day when Iberia is still running the flight he booked?

        Doug have you been given more than two weeks notice of this, or less? I think that matters.

• ScienceTeacher says:

  3 Mar3 March 20:15

  OT: But possible caution to people… Had both by MBNA and Lloyds cards blocked this weekend.

  I had no idea, but, Lloyds Banking Group actually includes MBNA. They have found a discrepancy during routine checks on my two accounts; the addresses do not match. (One says Flat X, the other says Apt. X).

  Need to go to a Lloyds Branch tomorrow with proof of address. Argh.

  • Lady London says:

    4 Mar4 March 00:15

    Why not close at least one of your accounts while you’re at it? Perhaps after a gentle comment about your surprise that this apparently discrepancy could not have been handled by phone…. and then mention how short of time you are generally and really if it has caused such a problem as to require a personal appearance in branch, well perhaps we’ll just close the offending account shall we?

    You are after all, the customer.

• Julian says:

  3 Mar3 March 21:40

  Sounds very unreasonably pedantic indeed if its Flat X and Apt X at the same address but entirely typical of the bureaucratic and over zealous manner in which Lloyds go about things and/or the lack of ability to use common and sense or discretion which they allow to their staff. Lloyds made me first go through a fresh credit check and then forced me to go to branch for an interview just to change from the fee free Legacy Lloyds Avios Duo card to the £24 per annum exchange rate fee free version with exactly the same credit limit.

  By contrast MBNA have always been the exact opposite and have always used 0800 phone numbers for customer service, can’t wait to cash advance money direct to your bank account (rather than just taking over existing credit card debts) and have always had really helpful empowered staff. Unfortunately Lloyds have now bought MBNA (from Bank of America) presumably because they have lost a lot of their own credit card customers through their over cautious and bureaucratic interactions with their customers.

  As I also have an MBNA and a Lloyds credit card I rather fear what may happen when Lloyds spot that my credit limit on my MBNA credit card (which I took out when I had a much larger salary) is over five times the one that they have been willing to let me have on the Avios Duo credit card…..

  • Shoestring says:

    3 Mar3 March 22:09

    Barclays made me do a silly interview in branch for nearly 25 minutes to get my current account if it makes you feel any better.

    Good job I got 6 lounge passes out of it.

    • Julian says:

      3 Mar3 March 23:05

      Had you already been a current account customer with them for 8 years at that point though, as I already had been with Lloyds in terms of their Avios product. Or indeed a collector of Avios through a credit card (having previously had the NatWest Gold Plus card) for around 24 years at that point in time. Stupidly Lloyds even made my Member Since date 6 years newer by treating the changeover to the fee paying Avios Rewards account as being a completely new and different customer.

      I actually also had to go through a lot of very silly paper form filling and signing last Wednesday to set up an Executors account at NatWest along with another NatWest customer executor and my sister (who wasn’t an existing NatWest customer). Despite getting two of us to put our cards in a card reader at one point to check who we were they they then still got us to fill out paper forms on all lines in handwritten ink, whereas they should have been able to populate them entirely from their computer and possibly just needed a signature (if I am a separate legal person with them as an Executor than when I am operating my own accounts.

      Other organisations like MetroBank make these things simple (including issuing credit and debit cards in the branch on the day), which is of course why they are growing and these Luddite banks are not…………………

    • Lady London says:

      5 Mar5 March 18:27

      And then you closed the account, right, Shoestring? 🙂

      • Shoestring says:

        5 Mar5 March 18:45

        No because I still might need another 6 lounge passes @£16.50 each (includes No1 T3). You get them fresh again every year. Account is free as I am no longer signed up to Travel Plus Pack. Which has quite a good travel insurance & RAC car breakdown insurance associated with it.

        I might need it, no ongoing cost until then. Minimum cost to get 6 lounge passes is 6 months @£16.50.

• Gary Sharp says:

  4 Mar4 March 08:20

  This is bad news. I buy a lot of Shell (fussy engine, also 13 mpg) so this was a nice little earner for me. I’m really not keen on using supermarket fuel, even the high octane stuff. I had a problem with an engine previously, and BMW claimed it was down to bad fuel. It was nice to be able to produce ALL the receipts for Shell V-Power.

  • Lady London says:

    5 Mar5 March 18:29

    What do you have @Gary Sharp, that only does 13mpg? is that a Rolls Royce?

    Agree with you about Shell V-Power if you want to keep an engine long-term.

    • Shoestring says:

      5 Mar5 March 18:50

      He’s got a BMW. I guess the 7 or 8 series are quite thirsty, or the bigger 4X4s

• Ollie says:

  4 Mar4 March 10:51

  Unlikely to effect UK residents unless on holiday, but don’t forget earning at Repsol via Iberia Plus.

  • MAF says:

    22 Mar22 March 13:09

    @Ollie Firstly, it’s “affect”. Secondly, it’s a completely different model. They have not even disclosed how much the voucher will be after the 10th visit! Unless, you have insider information?
    Call me an old comic, but I can only think of one reason to change the scheme and ain’t to make us richer 🤔

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